Among the many changes to the actual rules for 2019, there will also be significant changes in much of the terminology used to describe them. A lot of the familiar words and phrases that we’ve used for so many years have either been modified, replaced, or outright removed. Let’s take a look.

Abnormal Course Condition. This one will replace “Abnormal Ground Condition” and basically describes anything we’d find on the course that’s out of the ordinary like animal damage, ground under repair, immovable obstructions, and temporary accumulations of water.

On the subject of water, there’s a couple of changes there too. Temporary Water is on-tap (see what I did there) to replace “Casual Water”, and the word “Hazard” has been removed from the book entirely. The new phrase Penalty Area will be more of a catch-all used to describe any zones marked by the Committee that will cost you a stroke to get out of, wet or not. Things like hard to access areas, or places that may be really tough for the average golfer to get out of quickly. I will be buying stock in a spray paint company…